the anti-insanity project: science for tinies

[psocoptera]

So at this point I'm starting to accept that snow will simply continue to fall indefinitely, except when it's five degrees F and too cold to snow, and we will never leave the house again. Given that there's only so many hundred times I can go through the latest psychodrama ("cow very sad! pig come home soon") without wanting to hurl cow and pig across the room, I'm trying to get serious about coming up with Activities. I thought maybe I'd post some of them here, in hopes that it would inspire other parent people to also post about things they've done with their kids, allowing me to steal their ideas and postpone the descent into total snowbound insanity. So:

Project: Sink or Float?
Materials: a deep, clear container (I used an old Britta pitcher), things that can get wet
Explanatory details: I think this one is obvious
How did it go: Pretty well. Junie *loved* dropping the things in and taking them out. I had overestimated how many different things she'd be interested in trying - I had chosen five, a rock, a small rubber duck, a finger crayon, a metal spoon, and an empty (closed) pill bottle, but once she had tried the first three things, she wasn't interested in trying any more new things, she just wanted those again, so I did the spoon and bottle once to demonstrate and then we set them aside. Also, the way I had her set up (standing in her tower with the pitcher on the counter, pitcher half-full) she could reach the floating things, but not all the way to the bottom to get the rock, so I had to fish the rock out every time myself. If it wasn't for that I think she wouldn't have needed any assistance at all. I might try a shallower tub next time, although I thought the clear pitcher gave a nice view of what was happening, which a translucent tupperware tub might not as much.
Things we talked about: Sinking and floating, the way each thing does the same thing every time, the idea that you can guess what will happen and then try it out and see if you were right.
What of that she actually understood: Who cares? It kept her busy! (She did seem to be naming "sink" and "float" correctly by the end, though.)

Comments

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Not science activities, per se, but kids love them.

Things you can make at home with the right ingredients and that small kids can help mix (put down the plastic tablecloth if you have one!):

Playdough, slime, oobleck (AKA cornstarch and water)

Let me know if you'd like the recipes my MIL-the-retired-preschool-teacher gave me.

And there's always the classic chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar. Extra fun: put the baking soda in a balloon and the vinegar in a bottle. Put the mouth of the balloon over the end of the bottle and dump the soda in the vinegar. Watch balloon blow up!

The chemistry is probably beyond Juniper, but she might enjoy watching.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I had oobleck and baking soda/vinegar on my list, but I've never heard of slime (I mean, in this context, I assume we're not talking about my shower curtain). I'd take a slime recipe!

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I can't find MIL's, but there's a bunch online. This is the top result, and looks right: http://www.madsci.org/experiments/archive/878680114.Ch.html

Oh, and I have no idea if you have disposable diapers on hand or not, but they have an absorbent polymer inside. You can put it in a cup and add water and watch it swell... (Learned that from Steve Spangler on YouTube - many of his demos aren't do-it-at-home friendly or really young kid friendly, but you might find some ideas.)

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey. There's a bunch of other good looking stuff at the madsci site I linked.

Also, if you don't have red cabbage around, you can use the juice from soaking black beans before cooking as an acid-base indicator.

Magic color changes!

[crystalpyramid]

I didn't know that. We go through tons of black beans though! Thanks!

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Oh, and a demo at the science museum had kids making slime with (guar gum powder + water) instead of glue, because it was better. But I have no idea where to get guar gum, and most people have Elmer's or similar at hand.

[prof-fran.livejournal.com]

My kids played "Sink or Float" today while Ed and I shoveled. They tested 21 objects, each making a prediction of sink or float, then an observation of what actually happened. It kept them from yelling at each other for at least a 1/2 hour. Thanks!

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Yay! That is excellent. 21 objects! Any surprising results?

[crystalpyramid]

Janice VanCleave's science for every kid books might be a good resource. Some of the experiments are probably too hard, but it's all low-budget simple investigation stuff. There's a physics one, a chem one, and a bio one.